Overview
An ongoing project is in progress to create a lightweight but easy-to-modify desktop environment for Linux using the Labwc Wayland compositor. Labwc does not include its own desktop panel, so the current iteration borrows the panel from LXQt. We'd like to have our own panel instead, coded in Python and Qt for Python to make it easy for future students to explore and modify.
In order to implement the panel properly, it will be necessary to generate bindings for LayerShellQt, which allows a Qt widget or window to speak the wlroots layer shell protocol in order to position itself correctly on the screen. An existing project to create Python bindings already exists under a compatible license, although it might need to be updated for recent Qt versions.
Related Research
A customized working panel could be one component of a system designed for accessibility by users with disabilities. Design decisions in the panel could be made to facilitate use with screenreaders. The techniques used to launch and manage desktop applications could also be extended to support a "desktop" that does not require (or utilize) a visual output (e.g. for sight-impaired users).